Residents refuse to leave Aleppo

Thousands of residents in Aleppo are reportedly refusing to use so called ‘humanitarian corridors’ set up to evacuate people from the besieged Syrian city.

Just over a 150 people are said to have left through the corridors since Friday, with others choosing to risk starvation and air strikes.

Around three hundred thousand people are thought to still be in the city.

It comes as Russia’s defence ministry claimed 169 civilians have left through humanitarian corridors since they were set up, and has said that four further corridors are being created.

Opposition activists, though, denied that civilians or militants had left for government-held areas.

Aleppo-based opposition activist Baraa al-Halalby said: ‘This is a game by the regime. Not a single person left.

‘The regime wants to say that civilians have left in order to burn Aleppo.’

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed that people had left opposition zones but could not provide a figure.

Reports of the departures came a day after UN special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, called on Russia to leave the creation of humanitarian corridors around the city to the United Nations and its partners.

Airstrikes on several towns and villages in Aleppo province have been reported by opposition activists, including an attack on the village of Ibin alleged to have killed at least six people.

Thousands of residents in Aleppo are reportedly refusing to use so called 'humanitarian corridors' set up to evacuate people from the besieged Syrian city.
Just over a 150 people are said to have left through the corridors since Friday, with others choosing to risk starvation and air strikes.
Around three hundred...